Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 22, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winniw of Iii 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights school vote disastrous Public education in Manitoba suffered a crushing defeat this week when a by election was held to fill a vacancy on the Winnipeg school Board and just per cent of the eligible voters cast Public schools cannot fulfil their role in an environment of such profound Public the Ward one required because trustee Anita Neville had been elected to Parlia came in the midst of the writing of the school divisions the trustees Are about to make the most difficult choices of their allocating among the competing schools and competing programs the Money available from the provincial govern ment and fro the local the result May be that the school trustees will snatch Back from homeowners the tax Cut that mayor Glen Murray and the City Council have been trying to give the possibility of program cuts and the danger of tax increases Are matters of direct interest to the pub the new trustee will join in making these Cru Cial yet per cent of the Ward one electors could not be bothered to for superintendents and trustees who wish to operate the schools untroubled by Contact with the wider the Ward one by election would be a Triumph of orderly there is evidently Little danger that mobs of enraged citizens will storm the school Board offices demanding improve ments in the science program or removal of an unpopular school for those with a higher vision of the Public school and its the Ward one voter turnout is a warning that the Public no longer expects much out of the no expectations have been disappointed because few people in Winnipeg still turn to the Public school As a vital institution for improving the spreading Light and Hope and raising a new generation above the achievements of their Public schools should receive an infusion of Energy from school Board trustees should arrive at the Board bringing messages of Imp demands for Joyce win Ner of the Ward one by election in the Winnipeg cannot bring any such the Mes Sage her election sends is that the Public of Ward one neither Hopes nor fears much of anything from the other institutions have Arisen that the Public does care about the private the Public schools were vital of social improvement in earlier times when this Frontier society was learning its common striving for a Basic level of crude the Public school was treasured because it was the first rung on a ladder toward self improvement and libera now there seem to be Many such ladders and the Public school looks More like a machine that hums smoothly but performs no obviously vital Pur educators who believe that the Public schools could play a vital function should take no Comfort from the Public mass abstention in the Ward one they should try to figure out where pub Lic education lost its Way and what measures might make the Public once again care about the schools so that you might 15 per cent of the people out to vote for school Sharon strategy since suffering defeat in the israeli prime ministerial outgoing prime minister Ehud Barak has changed his mind about his future several in the bitterness of he announced that he would leave courted by the Man who Defeated liked party Leader Ariel to bring the labour party into a government of nation Al Barak considered the offer of serving As defence minister in such a this he changed his mind once he will he serve As defence minister but rather will step Down As Leader of the labour party and retire from Baraks latest decision May have been inspired by infighting within his labour is divided among those who utterly oppose any accommodation with those who believe that a coalition would give the government the strength and stability it will need to negotiate successfully with the and those who Are willing to consider cooperation with the liked but objected to Barak serving As defence Baraks departure from the scene Assum ing he does not change his mind once again May make it easier for Sharon to forge an his strategy is reported to be to win the support of enough labour members of the Knesset to form a government that cannot be held hostage by the numerous Small Many of them representing the extremes of israeli these groups have hampered the ability of successive israeli govern ments to negotiate if they can be Rele gated to a place in parliament More proportionate to their prospects of peace will be it will not be easy to form the but Sharon claims to be a patient Man and he does not intend to Rush into talks with it is a strategy worthy of the wily old Soldier that he pathetic response to tragedy twelve million dollars is a lot of but million will support at most nine children whose brains were scrambled because their mothers drank while with the Federal liberals announced they were com mitting that much to attacking the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol conditions caused by exposure to alcohol in the financial pledge sent researchers and social workers across the country scurrying to apply for a piece of the it was after All substantially More Money than had previously been thrown at the social its the Federal govern ment collects million annually in taxes on the Manitoba government itself reaps million in alcohol related both governments direct a pittance of that towards programs for educating Mothe Stobe and peo ple generally on the dangers of drinking too the problem with drinking while preg Nant is that no one knows How much is too even whether a couple of drinks will harm the drinking while pregnant can be a life sentence for the we dont know How Many people in the Gen eral population struggle with the life altering cognitive and social impairments triggered when the fetal brain is touched by the byproducts of the rough estimates available to 3 of every Ren dered meaningless by evidence indicating there Are so Many More people who display no physical but whose brain wiring was these fall into a category referred to As alcohol related Neur develop mental disorder and May prove More challenging As a societal Issue than these children have significant language have difficulty learning and forming social relationships As holding they dont but remain stunted in their social and cognitive development and frequently suf Fer with mental health because Early diagnosis is intervention comes too late to in the absence of much Clear answers or a Good grasp on How big the problem the children of those who drink Are streaming into schools and the health care sys for life inevitably lands them in the care of the country penal to say any of this is unfair to the unsuspecting and innocent victim is a Gross government has been a part of the aside from the dearth of spending on Preven Tive programs and on social supports for those struggling with it has blithely collected astounding amounts of Revenue from the merchants of in where a Crown corporation markets and milks alcohol sales like a Cash it amounts to an unconscionable particularly in Light of the incurable and devastating effects it and one would have to How dedicated could a government be to reducing Alco hol consumption when it relies heavily upon the so called sin tax to help finance its operations paediatrician and medical geneticist a Chud Ley asks precisely i do believe that the government should not be promoting the there in bed with the alcohol Industry because there dependent upon that a University of Manitoba proves works out of the childrens Hospital help ing to diagnose children who carry the Burden of their mothers social in one group in the the Only jurisdiction in Canada where physicians Are required to report cases of called for penalties against those who serve alcohol to pregnant there has been wide ranging discussion on Locking up pregnant women who drink or abuse both of these responses have been dismissed by authorities such As Chudley As ineffective and potentially doing More harm than what is widely regarded As crucial is More Money towards research and social we need government to take the Lead dedicating a meaningful portion of the taxes raised through the production and sales of be it through existing levies or new no one with a conscience would com Plain about paying More for a bottle of Beer or a Mickey of rum if the Money went to battling but therein lies the govern ments Are opposed to dedicated taxes because it ties their limiting the control they have Over spending a risky move in the Era of tax such a bold step could be taken Only by a government dedicated More to help ing people than securing the Power that drives technology my editor spends a Good part of his Day sorting through the phone Calls and faxes people still Send reams of them from Public relations trying to get some valuable Media coverage for the companies which employ with so Many companies National and International making product performing research and carving out markets with new tech it can be a Chal Lenge to separate the interesting news stories from the empty companies sign con enter joint Ven Issue quarterly reports and win awards every Many tout their web Sites As Success declaring the number of hits their internet Sites if technology has fuelled the growth and Cre ated the Raison Detre of Many of these enter it has also spawned new methods voice electronic press cell phones and pagers of delivering messages to editors and news were both enthralled and this amid All the Runof Hemill and the important a release ran on the can news wire service about Danni the worlds most downloaded is a former Seattle stripper turned los Angeles web has broken the Bil lion download the release this Means that one billion images of is ashes naked or scantily clothed self have been downloaded by computer users pity All those serious news releases about mundane having to compete for Atten Tion with this sort of so the Story is Ashe made the site her self in 1995 with Worth of equipment and a crash study in web site Dannis hard drive was by is ashes monthly sub scribers she runs both a free and a paid site were grossing her us for those curious about the methodology and reporting of the is ashes people have established a timeline and details of the calculations at As an this appears to be a site devoted solely to the business of is ashes Appeal there Are no nude on a daily uses More band Width than All of Central the site since february six images of is Ashe have been downloaded every on most of As you might have Are naked As you also might have the guineas Book of world records which registers records for every after All has awarded her the title of the most downloaded of that title had most recently belonged to Cindy who is still listed As such in the 2001 edition of the very Clever people some of them even More Clever than my editor have spent a great amount of time wondering about the role of technology in the the Way it has fuelled particularly in the and its Impact on product cos savings and the Way we communicate and economists speak about the technology Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 79 2001 free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member idol the Manitoba press Council and the embracing of the internet by even so called old Economy Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has talked at length about How new technologies can help companies manage allow ing them to nimbly respond to Subtle changes in the information Greenspan is permanently changing the Way the Economy for All Greenspan opt tech stocks Are suffering and people keep whispering about a former Dot Corn millionaires Are learning to love Macaroni and staffers at Many like and have been Laid off after ambitious ventures failed to make and and despite All the growing Money is being made on the inter profitable models Are still being hatched for books and other but years some entrepreneurs latched onto a Market that seemed a although arguably Tacky and old econ new econ it really Doest Danni Ashe knows some thing All of us maybe even economists realize at some level sex Rudy email Nicholas Hirst Patrick Flynn ;